


Repay Him

by Freedoms_Champion



Series: Generally Unrelated Marauders [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, James saved Severus and this is the aftermath, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), No character bashing, Regulus worries about his friends, Severus and Regulus friendship, Severus just doesn't have good impressions of people, invisible gremlin James, making amends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:54:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24527956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Freedoms_Champion/pseuds/Freedoms_Champion
Summary: Potter has been following Severus around and Severus wants nothing to do with him. When it all goes a little far, Severus might be forced to confront some things he never wanted to deal with.
Series: Generally Unrelated Marauders [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1765465
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Repay Him

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy it!  
> This is not meant to hate on James or Sirius, it's just a reflection of how Severus feels. There's a hint of Severus/James at the end, but you can ignore that if you don't want it.  
> I love James and Sirius, but they were a bit flawed when they were at school.

“Please let me say what I need to say.”

“Sod off, Potter. I don’t have a reason to listen.”

Severus badly wanted to follow up with a jinx, but he felt it was a better punishment just to walk away. He turned on his heel, leaving the git stammering behind him. Inwardly, he seethed, but nothing showed on the outside.

How dare Potter keep showing up, begging to say whatever pathetic excuse he wanted to spit out? His lot had tried to kill Severus, how could he possibly think Severus was going to accept some poorly thought-out reason why it wasn’t so bad?

He’d asked Dumbledore to expel the entire group, but the headmaster had only uttered one of his inscrutable comments: “None of you would be safe if I sent them away.”

What was that supposed to mean? Lupin was the only one Severus could imagine being in danger outside of Hogwarts. He actually had the least amount of anger toward the studious young werewolf. It wasn’t his fault his lunatic friends had tried to use him as a murder weapon.

In fact, Lupin appeared to be as angry with his friends as Severus was. They didn’t have many classes together, but Severus could see him scooting around the Gryffindor table at meals, trying to get away from Black.

Severus curled his hands into fists at the thought of Black. He’d known there was something strange going on when the idiot had offered to help him. Black never spoke to him unless it was to offer an insult. He should never have just accepted the advice and gone down to the Whomping Willow.

Pettigrew might not deserve to go either, Severus thought, tacking on the fourth member of the group as an afterthought. He wasn’t even sure why the others kept him around, unless they wanted an easy target when no one else presented themselves.

Still, Black and Potter were monsters and had no right to keep walking around the castle.

Especially not Potter, who was following him around trying to choke out half-baked excuses.

“Silver scales,” he mumbled to open the secret door to the Slytherin common room. Thankfully, it was quiet and empty there. Rosier and his friends could be a rowdy lot and Severus was in no mood to get dragged into the middle of their newest misdeed.

More than anything, he missed Lily. She still wasn’t speaking to him after what had happened last year, not that he blamed her. With a lonely summer on his own to think, Severus could admit to himself that she was entirely in the right to cut him out of her life, no matter how painful it was to him. His behavior really had gotten out of control and until he could figure out why and how to fix it, she was better off having nothing to do with him.

He put his bag on a table in a little alcove where no one would bother him and put his head down too. The memory of sitting outside the Fat Lady painting, begging Lily to forgive him was still painful. Lily’s green eyes had smoldered with resentment and disdain while he struggled to explain himself, even when there was nothing he could really say. He would have done anything to get her to listen, just to listen even if she couldn’t forgive him.

In fact, he’d acted a lot like Potter had been acting…

Severus shot upright and gave his head a good shake to punish his brain for that thought. There was no way Potter was feeling anything like that crushing guilt and fear he’d wanted Lily to understand. They weren’t friends in any way, Potter would never have a reason to want to apologize for trying to kill him.

Angry all over again, Severus unpacked his homework more forcefully than he needed to and got to work on a profoundly boring Herbology essay.

Hours later, Severus finished the essay and pushed it aside to start on the equally uninteresting Astronomy charts that were due the next day. Normally, he was better about homework than this, but the ongoing situation with Potter and his gang, the edginess from nearly meeting a werewolf, and everything else had made it difficult to focus.

His ink was empty, so Severus turned toward his bag to get the spare and keep working. When he set the replacement down, his inkwell shimmered darkly with fresh black ink.

Severus rubbed his eyes. He must be more tired than he’d thought, if he was imagining his ink was gone. That was probably because of the nightmares.

He shook his head again. There was no reason to dwell on it when he was awake as well as when he was sleeping. He didn’t need ink, so it was best to get to work.  
He flipped through his notes to fill in the charts and ignored how his head was starting to ache. It was probably from leaning over the table to make out his own handwriting in the dim light. Normally, he remembered to bring a lantern into this alcove, but he’d been too rattled this time.

A warm yellow glow broke Severus’ concentration on the endless moons of Jupiter.

He stared at the lantern that sat innocently on the table, well away from his notes and books to keep from setting them on fire.

“Where did that come from?”

Had one of the house-elves exercised a bit of imagination to bring him light? Severus wasn’t sure they would. The house-elves were shy of having students see them anywhere except the kitchens. Still, they had magic wizards couldn’t fathom, one could have been invisible to get him a bit of light.

Invisible…

Severus set his quill down, getting a sinking feeling. Weird things had been happening, most of which he’d brushed off as not paying attention. The lantern, his ink. Before that, the other day he’d been studying in a disused room and found himself supplied with snacks he couldn’t remember bringing.

He jabbed his foot forward under the table and connected with something solid that swore in a familiar voice.

“Potter! What the hell are you doing in here?” Severus demanded in a whisper, ducking under the table. Potter pulled off his Invisibility Cloak, scowling and rubbing his shoulder.

“What do you think? I’m trying to get a chance to say what I need to,” he whispered back. Severus moved his hand to his wand, purely out of reflex. He could hear people in the common room now, it would be a disaster to hex Potter now. Not that getting him into even more trouble wasn’t tempting.

“Put that cloak back on and get out!” Severus snarled. “I don’t want to hear anything, and I don’t want you lurking around trying to – to behave like a house-elf.”

“I won’t. I have to do something,” Potter replied. Severus expected to see hatred on his face, but it wasn’t there. He wasn’t sure what was lurking in Potter’s hazel eyes, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was getting rid of him.

“Just leave. I don’t want anything from you except peace and space.”

“That’s not enough! I didn’t know what Padfoot said to you until later and if I hadn’t gotten there in time, you’d be dead or worse. I have to do something to make it up to you. Since you won’t let me apologize, I’ve had to come up with something else.”

Severus sat up in his chair, lost for words. He needed a chance to think and he was not going to get it doubled up under a table like a five-year-old. Potter had broken school rules and come into the common room of another House because he felt bad about what Black had done. He hadn’t been aware of the “joke”.

Severus wasn’t sure he believed that, but there was an uncannily familiar note of anguish in Potter’s voice. He really did sound like Severus had last year.

He ducked back under the table. Potter had wrapped the cloak around himself, leaving only his head visible. Clever, in a way. A head, near the bottom of the table, was less likely to be noticed than a whole boy. Severus could notice that, grudgingly, but there was no way he was going to mention it.

“Just go away. I don’t care if you didn’t know, Black still tried to kill me and he’s your mate. I want nothing from you.” It gave him a curious pang of guilt and pain to be on Lily’s end of things for a change.

Potter scowled mutinously.

“I’ll leave for tonight, but don’t think this is over,” he replied. “I’m not going to stop until I’ve paid you back for what Padfoot did. The whole thing is my fault. Make sure you get some sleep, if you can.”

He pulled the cloak over his head and vanished completely, leaving Severus sputtering impotently.

What was any of that supposed to mean? “Get some sleep” indeed! When it was Potter’s fault that he couldn’t sleep in the first place!

In his anger, Severus didn’t control his thoughts as much as he usually did. He flashed back to that earthy tunnel, bent over to fit, gripping his wand in a sweaty hand. There was noise ahead, inhuman screaming and howling that made his heart race. Maybe he was only a half-blood, but he had a sinking feeling he knew what the noise meant.

Dumbledore was harboring a werewolf in a school full of kids. How could he be so reckless? How could the board of governors allow it?

He should have stopped and gotten out, but he couldn’t stop creeping forward. Unless he saw it for himself, no one would believe it and he wouldn’t be able to prove anything. The werewolf roared and Severus knew with a sickening certainty that it had scented him.

Hands knotted in the collar of his robes, dragging Severus back down the tunnel. Half-strangled, he couldn’t turn around until he was heaved out of the tunnel and a body collapsed on top of him. It was dark, but Severus could feel the cold wire frame digging into his shoulder.

Potter.

“Sev? You’re white as a ghost.”

The voice shook Severus out of the memory, and he gasped for air. Regulus Black stood at the table; dark eyes full of concern. He looked like an unfinished version of his brother, the same proud features and dark hair, but Regulus was different. Not as handsome, maybe, but certainly more approachable. Of course, that might have been Severus projecting. He liked the younger boy, but right now wasn’t a good time to see him. Not when he was still so furious with the older one.

“Just haven’t been sleeping well,” he replied to Regulus’ concern and hastily packed his things into his bag. Parchment crunched, but he didn’t care. “I’m going to turn in early.”

“If you say so. It’s after ten, you know.”

Worry continued to layer Regulus’ face and voice. Severus wasn’t sure why, but the boy had a thing about looking after his friends. He must have learned it from his brother, or possibly just form his brother’s example. Black certainly wasn’t close enough with Regulus to give him a first-hand example.

Severus rushed past him, unable to explain why he didn’t want to be near Regulus. He was under orders not to say anything about what had happened, to keep Lupin’s secret safe. Severus didn’t object very much to that, but he wished there was a way he could get Black and Potter to be less popular. The other students had no idea what they actually were, after all.

He changed into pajamas and stared at the canopy of his bed, unable to shut his mind off. Maybe the other students did know. After all, Potter and Black had been strutting around the castle for six years now, hexing everyone they didn’t like and tormenting Severus himself on a weekly basis. Maybe they were only popular because no one else wanted to be next.

That was an infuriating line of thought and Severus irritably punched his pillow into a better shape while he looked around for something else to think about.

His traitorous mind only offered the inexplicable emotion it had offered up that night, when Potter had collapsed shaking on top of him: a curiously tingly sense of excitement. Severus hadn’t been able to identify it at the time; it only became clear later when Potter landing on top of him featured in dreams that had nothing to do with Lupin.

Growling, Severus put his pillow over his head and purposefully shut every thought out of his mind so that he could get some sleep.


End file.
